Robert Sparks is the VP of Research and Development at Estacado Systems, providing solutions in real-time IP communications. Prior to Estacado, Robert held the CTO position at Xten, focusing on SIP-based voice, video, instant messaging and presence communication software. Before that, Robert was a Principal Engineer at dynamicsoft, the company that pioneered commercial SIP solutions. Robert is a co-author of the core SIP specification, RFC3261, and several of its extensions. He co-chairs the IETF’s SIMPLE working group. Robert has focused on improving the level of interoperability of SIP implementations by coordinating the SIPIt and SIMPLEt interoperability events and by contributing to the SIP Forum Interoperability Test Framework. Robert is currently President and on the board of directors of the SIP Foundry, and is an active contributor to the reSIProcate project. Robert has a BSc in Computer Science and a MSC in Mathematics from Texas A & M University.